Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Evans and the Labor Party today are going on with this because they are taking pensioners for fools by trying to imply something that is not the truth of how the process went. That is another indictment on how the Labor Party is taking pensioners completely and utterly for granted. This is a complete insult. Of course, we could have lined up speakers from here to outside the chamber and down the street if we had needed to, because we do take the position of pensioners very seriously. I know there is more we can do, but at least we are doing something. We are doing something, as opposed to the Labor Party, which is doing nothing but having an inquiry. If it is a stunt that gives them more money then let us call it a stunt. Call it what you want, because we are trying to alleviate some of the pressure on these people that is occurring.

Let us just go through it. Under a coalition government there was a real increase in pensions. That is a fact. I would suggest very seriously that under the Labor Party government there has been a real decrease in pensions by reason of the increase in fuel, groceries and all of these things that they have absolutely no control of and have not got a clue how to deal with. Yet, in the same process, they have been hypothesising and philosophising about a measly $30 per pensioner. Then they said, ‘It does not go far enough.’ So what is their solution? It is to give it to no-one. They said, ‘It does not go far enough, so we will give it to no-one.’ That is another Labor Party solution.

On top of this situation where there are so many stresses on the budget, we see that the superannuation of so many of these pensioners is also going down and is under severe threat. So what does Mr Rudd do? He goes to New York. That is his solution to the problem. The sorts of emails that are coming in are saying, ‘It is interesting to see that Kevin, our prime tourist’—the Prime Minister—‘is wanting to charge us a carbon tax. This is a person who has travelled 160,000 miles in his 737, which equates to almost one million litres of fuel for our prime sponsored tourist, yet this person cannot find it within his capacity to find $30 per pensioner.’ If Labor think they are going to do something better in the future, they should pass the $30 and then add to it, if that is where their heart really is. But that is not the issue.

We have heard about stunts. I will mention a few more stunts. Fuelwatch was a pretty handy stunt; I am sure the pensioners were happy about that stunt. What a fiasco. GroceryWatch—another stunt and another fiasco. The education revolution, the toolbox of the 21st century—another fiasco and another stunt. I would be very careful about talking about stunts if I were on the Labor Party side because it is a rhetorical wonderland over there. When it comes to really delivering an outcome, all they can do is sneer and snarl and then give some reason about why they could not help yet again. Their proposition that they are going to have an inquiry into the $30 a week, plus other issues at a later stage, is absurd. I think the Australian people have had it up to the gunwales with impending inquiries as the solution to their problems.

We have tried to help. There have been discussions in the joint party room over a long period of time. As has been documented, our government was about trying to bring forward a process of alleviating the pressure on pensioners. But that is not the dictum of this government. The dictum of this government is to sit back, to become, after such a short period of time, content and smug and to leave pensioners almost in destitution. I think it is an absolute disgrace.